Austell Intermediate's Ram Readers Finish Second at Competition

When all six rounds of the West Georgia regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl were over on Saturday, Cindy Coker knew how many points her team had, but not the scores of the seven other teams.

Coker, a media specialist at who is one of three coaches of the Ram Readers, heard several teams’ names called at the awards ceremony.

“They were down to the last three and I said: ‘Wow, I guess we get a big trophy,’” she said.

A big trophy indeed: The Ram Readers finished second at the competition at West Georgia University, coming in behind the only other Cobb County school to compete, Casa Montessori.

The team had high hopes following , but second place came as a welcomed surprise, Coker said.

“I figured maybe we’d finish in the middle of the pack,” she said, noting the tight competition from charter and private schools from surrounding counties.

“I was just shocked,” she said. “All the kids started screaming.”

The West Georgia competition was one of six regional bowls on Saturday. During the competitions, students are quizzed on content from pre-selected reading material.

“They did awesome,” said PTA fundraising chairwoman Kimberly Smith. Smith's son, Jarrod, is one of the team’s founding members and a co-captain.

“The kids have worked really hard, and they’ve been getting together (to practice),” she said. “Their hard work paid off.”

The top two teams from each regional will meet on Feb. 26 for the two divisional competitions, which have six teams each. Austell Intermediate’s division is scheduled to compete at Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Morrow.

The first-place finishers from both divisions will square off at the state championship on March 5 at the University of Georgia.

Coker described how the team’s successes might trickle down into the mindsets of other students at Austell Intermediate and encourage them to read more.

“It inspires all their classmates to say, ‘I’m going to read this book. I’m going to do this next year,’” she said. “(Reading) becomes more of a routine than just a game.”